Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OCTOBER 2012
Ibu Darmulis, a public health community mobiliser in West Sumatra (Boy Amra/Kabisat/Oxfam local partner)
Around one million Indonesians are affected by natural disasters every year. Despite significant government investment in early warning systems and disaster management, the impact of the 2009 earthquake in West Sumatra showed that much more needs to be done. Oxfams post-earthquake advocacy work aimed to build understanding of how gender inequality shapes vulnerability and to promote womens participation in designing the emergency response. Oxfam conducted research into the differential impact of the earthquake on men and women supported the UN and the government of Indonesia to integrate this information into their own responses.
INTRODUCTION
The Republic of Indonesia is a vast archipelago of thousands of islands spread between Asia and Australia. It has a population of more than 230 million, although fewer than half of the islands are inhabited. Indonesia has made advances in reducing poverty over the past few decades and is now rated as a middle-income country. The countrys gross national income per 1 capita rose from $2,200 in 2000 to $3,720 in 2009 . It ranks in the top five countries that have made the fastest progress in human development from 1970 to 2010, on income and nonincome dimensions.2 Important pro-democracy legislation has been enacted and the country now has a free media. Despite this progress, the increase in prosperity has been highly uneven. Poverty levels remain high and more than 32 million Indonesians currently live below the poverty line, with approximately half of all households remaining clustered around the national 3 poverty line set at 200,262 rupiahs per month ($22). Oxfam has been working in Indonesia since 1972, focusing on creating sustainable livelihoods, promoting gender equality, and improving disaster preparedness and mitigation. A key objective for Oxfams future work is that the poorest and most vulnerable people are better able to cope with shocks, including human-made and natural disasters and the negative impacts of climate change. Oxfam has prioritised support for womens capacities to prepare for, respond to, and lead in disaster situations. Lying near the intersection of shifting tectonic plates, Indonesia is prone to natural hazards, including tropical flooding, droughts, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. The country is rated at extreme risk and ranked second (after Bangladesh) in terms of vulnerability on Maplecroft's Natural Disaster Risk Index 2010.4 On average, one million Indonesians are affected by natural disasters every year. From 1980 to 2008, there were 293 natural disasters, which caused an estimated $21.2bn in economic losses. The government has made efforts to reduce the risks people face from natural disasters. Early warning systems have been developed, and in 2007, a new Law on Disaster Management (Law 24/2007) was enacted as well as regulations and guidelines for its implementation. The government also established a National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), replicated in some of the countrys provinces. Yet the aftermath of the 2009 earthquake showed that existing efforts did not significantly reduce the risks or impact on peoples lives. Much more needs to be done to build peoples resilience to future disasters.
GENDER ISSUES
Despite the Indonesian governments strong commitment to gender equality and womens empowerment, with an established legal framework and institutions in place at national and provincial level to implement it, progress has been mixed and significant challenges remain. Womens participation in decision-making at all levels is very low; just 1 per cent of the 500 bupatis (head of district, and therefore one of the most powerful local government positions under decentralisation) are women. The same appears to be the case in the institutions charged with disaster management and preparedness. In Indonesia, women are generally more vulnerable to chronic poverty due to gender inequalities in the distribution of income and access to credit, and unequal control over property and natural resources. Womens access to paid employment, and wages when in employment, is also lower than that of men. While the total number of men in paid work has continued to rise, womens employment has stagnated or decreased, among both the existing female labour force and new female entrants to the labour market. In 2005, the percentage of women in paid employment was 40 per cent lower than that of men.5
Women are also disproportionately affected by disasters and emergencies. They are more likely to die, or to experience major changes in their role, including taking on greater care-giving responsibilities for younger or older survivors often with little support and few resources. They play a central role within the family, securing relief from emergency authorities, meeting the immediate needs of survivors, and managing temporary relocation. Destruction of homes, water, and other facilities puts considerable strain on womens ability to carry out these responsibilities; and when food is scarce, women usually reduce their own food intake before that of their children and/or their husband. Women play a vital part in disaster mitigation and response efforts, whether acting within their traditional gender roles or going beyond them. But despite this, they are often portrayed as victims, and their central role in delivering the response is frequently overlooked. Given the size and spread of the Indonesian archipelago, it is not surprising that it is home to many different ethnic groups. In the province of West Sumatra, one of the countrys most disaster-prone areas, the Minangkabau ethnic group (also known as Minang or Padang) is indigenous to the highlands. Their culture is matrilineal, with property and rice land passing down from mother to daughter, while religious and political affairs are the realm of men (although some women also play important roles in these areas). Women and girls in West Sumatra have had an active role in the economy and thus are significantly affected by the damage to property and disruption to communication and markets caused by disasters. Because of widespread male migration, there are many female-headed households across West Sumatra, many of whom (especially older women) may be excluded from or unable to take up available support when a disaster strikes.
However, a rapid response by the international community was hampered by the lack of clear data on the nature and scale of need. The Indonesian government declared the end of the emergency phase on 30 November 2009 and the rehabilitation and reconstruction plan for West Sumatra was also finalised in late November. Its implementation spanned until 2011. In January 2010, the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) established a Technical Assistance Team to help the governor of West Sumatra implement the rehabilitation and reconstruction plan. As the province had not yet established its Provincial Disaster Response Agency, the Technical Assistance Team played the key role of policy-making and decision-making body, co-ordinating the response of many national and international humanitarian actors. It also developed and shared technical implementation guidelines, and provided other policy inputs to the governor. For this reason, Oxfam decided to provide policy support to the Technical Assistance Team, focusing on facilitating the involvement of West Sumatra civil society organisations in co-ordination meetings, and mainstreaming womens rights among community facilitators implementing the reconstruction phase at village level. Though co-ordination and information management was generally considered adequate, especially between government and UN clusters, local NGOs, including womens organisations, did not strongly participate in cluster activities, and gaining access to government representatives for influencing purposes proved difficult. This was because of womens lack of information, language skills, and even transport to get to meetings. Co-ordination mechanisms had also not provided adequate space and opportunity for women and their representatives to participate, or to voice womens issues and needs.
OXFAMS RESPONSE
A week after the earthquake, Oxfams West Sumatra Earthquake Response Plan was developed and began to be implemented, a process that continued for five months. Its interlinking objectives covered the response and recovery phases: emergency shelter, WASH, livelihood recovery, and advocacy for improved emergency response and disaster risk reduction (DRR). The specific objectives of the plan were: to ensure effective communication and co-ordination among humanitarian actors, i.e. government, UN agencies, international and national NGOs; to ensure that the needs of the worst-affected communities, including women and men, are met; to ensure womens active participation in designing the humanitarian response, which must address their short-term practical needs as well as their longer-term strategic needs; to ensure that the response in specific sectors adhered to minimum standards established by 7 8 the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and Sphere; to promote sound disaster risk reduction measures and policies for the province.
The longer-term intentions of the programme are referred to in the following press release of 4 October 2009. David MacDonald, Oxfams Indonesia Emergency Response Manager, said, Needs are huge in Padang and they dont just include immediate emergency supplies. Oxfam is also looking at how best we can help people to get back on to their feet quickly those affected need to be able to get on with rebuilding their lives after the devastation. Oxfams advocacy strategy and operational plan included objectives on advocacy and research to strengthen engagement with those in positions of power. It also aimed to build an evidence base that could be continually updated in collaboration with the international community,
provincial government, and local civil society actors. Key to the overall response strategy was to advocate for effective co-ordination to ensure an adequate and timely emergency and recovery response, based on international humanitarian standards and principles of equity, participation, and accountability. Oxfam provided policy support to the Indonesian government authorities, UN agencies, and donors. After the National Agency for Disaster Management established the Technical Assistance Team (TPT), Oxfams strategy and plan was revisited to accommodate the newly established body. As Roysepta Abimanyu, Advocacy Co-ordinator for Oxfam in West Sumatra, said, the team decided that it was important to have triple tracks parallel advocacy: directly with TPT, through the clusters (notably, protection, shelter, and general co-ordination), and by encouraging partners to engage with TPT and provincial and district governments. As of January 2010, Oxfams three advocacy priorities were as follows: To ensure womens participation and ensure that their immediate and longer-term strategic needs are met, a gender working group should be included in post-disaster governance. To strengthen governance by establishing a complaints mechanism for affected communities in the province regarding abuse of power and corruption in handling the rehabilitation and reconstruction. The provincial government should formulate a clear policy and establish a clear line of responsibility for internally displaced people (IDPs), covering resettlement and the transition period, including access to basic services and support for rebuilding livelihoods. Although the governments action plan for rehabilitation and reconstruction mentioned this vulnerable group, it did not state which department was responsible for dealing with IDPs, nor did it allocate any budget to activities supporting IDPs.
These three areas marked a strategic gap in the governments plan for rehabilitation and reconstruction. When the governments plan was released, Oxfam and others conducted a joint critical analysis of its consideration of gender issues. Advocacy work to address this gap included release of a joint response to the media and lobbying of key targets within government and relevant UN agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UNOCHA. Oxfam was instrumental in taking forward the first priority (establishing a gender working group), which was the main focus of Oxfams advocacy work with the TPT, and with the IASC on UN cluster co-ordination. This involved engaging with the clusters to encourage them to work with all relevant development and disaster management institutions at national, provincial, and local levels. Key media were also lobbied to ensure that they highlighted the needs and voices of women and communicated the role of women and womens organisations in the response.
expressed an interest in getting support to integrate gender effectively into the work of their agencies; Oxfam and other organisations, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), gave such support by participating in co-ordination meetings, holding training events, and helping to draw up checklists and other documents, which were distributed to community facilitators. Oxfam conducted research on the differential impact of the earthquake on men and women, which informed the design of subsequent advocacy activities. A team of researchers from outside Western Sumatra carried out interviews with local men and women and with government officials, and analysed secondary information from humanitarian agencies. The research found that although women and men share some vulnerabilities, physical life cycle factors such as pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as social roles and responsibilities including lack of access to information and restrictions on womens free movement outside the home make women and children more vulnerable during disasters than men. As a result of destruction of homes, many women also lost their home businesses. However, the research also found that women are very resourceful during a crisis. This was demonstrated through increased social networking or starting up small businesses like community kitchens to contribute to the response. Oxfam also included gender analysis in their field assessments. This involved finding out how important the matrilineal culture is to womens coping mechanisms and post-emergency livelihoods recovery, as well as gaining information on the extent of womens land and property ownership. Oxfams objectives in conducting these assessments were: to build a stronger understanding among all humanitarian actors of how gender inequality shapes vulnerability; to promote the active participation of women in designing humanitarian response; to identify opportunities and strategies for addressing womens short-term practical needs as well as their longer-term strategic needs. The resulting information was shared with key agencies through a series of advocacy activities that included highlighting the issues in the media, as well as holding seminars and lobbying those in positions of power. Oxfam provided some support to co-ordination clusters (specifically the protection cluster) and to government to enable them to integrate gender into the relief and recovery response, as a way of influencing policies and practices from a gender perspective. Oxfam worked with the UNFPA (the protection cluster lead) and the IASC to encourage local civil society organisations to establish a gender sub-cluster, which became very active within the protection cluster. This group benefited greatly from the arrival of the Yogya gender group, which had been formed on the basis of best practices adopted after the tsunami in Aceh and earthquake in Jogjakarta, and included local womens organisations. The two groups combined to form the gender working group (GWG). Oxfam held a capacity-building workshop with members of the gender working group on how they could influence operations of the other clusters, and also supported the setting up of networks for sharing information and joint advocacy work. Oxfam provided ongoing support and technical advice to the GWG, including some funding and a venue for holding meetings. It helped the group develop terms of reference for its activities and to write funding proposals, getting access to official documents and other information and paying for translations when necessary. Oxfam also supported the Provincial Office for Womens Empowerment and Family Planning to take a leading role in the GWG. This increased its legitimacy in the eyes of various actors and enabled the group to participate in government discussions about reconstruction and to influence those discussions. In addition, Oxfam staff participated directly in seminars and
other events where reconstruction plans were being discussed, offering policy suggestions that would increase local womens participation and promote their rights more broadly.
affected by the disaster. Now, in her role as a public health community mobiliser, Ibu works every day to convince people in my community to change their hygiene behaviour. Ibu Darmulis took her responsibility very seriously and went from door to door to explain why and how simple changes in personal hygiene and sanitation could improve peoples quality of life. She had also conducted two community meetings on contamination routes or diarrhoea transmission routes and the safe water chain. More than 55 women had attended and learned better hygiene practices. Many people still ask me why they should use soap to wash their hands or have a proper toilet, but thats OK, I wont give up. I want my village to be clean, so I will continue working with Oxfam as long as I can, she said.
Source: Earthquake Response 20092010 Gender and WASH story Six months after Oxfams programme ended, Ibu Darmuliss influence is still valued in her village. She was chosen to become village facilitator for the governments rehabilitation and reconstruction activities co-ordinated by the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB). Her role was to facilitate community discussions on how the cash provided to rebuild housing would be used. Her role in community mobilisation as part of Oxfams WASH emergency response activities helped Ibu Darmulis to build her self-esteem and gain the trust and respect of her community.
To ensure that adequate recovery and reconstruction assistance is provided, which meets the needs of women as well as men, and to enable communities to integrate DRR work, Oxfam has continued to engage with government, participating in cluster co-ordination activities, including lobbying and information gathering with key stakeholders. Oxfam has continued to support the work of local partners, including research, advocacy, and engaging with the media. This has included providing funding in some cases as well as building links with other resources, e.g. to information and media staff. A longer-term capacity-building initiative by Oxfam aimed to enable local NGOs and community members to monitor, document, and carry out advocacy work on issues relating to assistance for affected communities during the reconstruction period. Effective early response and longer-term reconstruction assistance must be based on a strong understanding of the needs and capacities of women and men in different local contexts. By using gender-sensitive tools and approaches, Oxfams field research was able to identify the gendered vulnerabilities and risks facing people, as well as their capacities to contribute to the response. While much progress has been made in developing the emergency response in Indonesia, more needs to be done, including raising awareness among local authorities and communities on gender equality issues and how these affect peoples vulnerability during a disaster. There also needs to be greater representation of women and womens organisations in advocacy and decision-making forums. Women must be more involved at all stages of the response, including assessment, planning, implementation, and monitoring of all disaster management activities.
NOTES
1
The World Bank, Indonesia Overview, http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/overview (last accessed September 2012). United Nations Development Programme (2010) Human Development Report 2010, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, New York: UNDP, http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Complete_reprint.pdf, pp 3940 (last accessed August 2012) The World Bank, Indonesia Overview, http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/indonesia/overview (last accessed September 2012). www.maplecroft.com
Asian Development Bank, Indonesia Country Gender Assessment, http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Country-Gender-Assessments/ino.asp (last accessed August 2012)
6
The cluster approach is a mechanism aimed at strengthening preparedness, co-ordination, and technical capacity to respond to humanitarian emergencies by ensuring leadership and accountability in the main sectors or areas of humanitarian response. Inter-Agency Standing Committee, http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/iasc/ The Sphere Project (2011) Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response, http://www.sphereproject.org/handbook/
7 8
Oxfam GB, October 2012. This paper was written by Claire Harvey and Ines Smyth, with contributions from Ancilla Bere and Roysepta Abimanyu. Oxfam wishes to thank Stephanie de Chassy, Tess Dico Young, Thomas Fuller, Caroline Green, Richard Mawer, Ines Smyth, and Nigel Timmins for their support. This is part of a series of papers written to inform public debate on development and humanitarian policy issues. The text may be freely used for the purposes of campaigning, education, and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full. For copying in any other circumstances, or for re-use in other publications, or for translation or adaptation, permission must be secured and a fee may be charged. Email policyandpractice@oxfam.org.uk. The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press. Published by Oxfam GB under ISBN 978-1-78077-191-5 in October 2012. Oxfam GB, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY, UK. Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International.
OXFAM
Oxfam is an international confederation of 17 organizations networked together in 92 countries, as part of a global movement for change, to build a future free from the injustice of poverty.